The Most Troublesome Problem in the Church Today

It’s difficult to narrow all of the evangelical church’s problems into one significant problem because of the many diverse denominations, cultures, and theological emphasis. But from a broad, biblical perspective, many pastors and believers agree that one of the most pressing and troublesome issues in the church today is this: a loss of discipleship.

One might only have to go as far as church advertisements on Instagram and Facebook to see there is a significant deadly trend in the church today. Many evangelical churches are grappling with a shallow form of Christianity that prioritizes attendance over transformation, comfort over conviction, and relevance over reverance. This is brought about by young pastors who are more concerned with charisma than character,  and choose their elders and staff according to that standard and not the Bible.

But what does this look like and how does it show up in a congregation near you:

• Biblical illiteracy: Many Christians are not grounded in Scripture and struggle to discern sound truth from cultural noise.
• Transactional faith: Faith becomes receiving blessings from God and experiences rather than a life of surrender, holiness, and mission.
• Lack of spiritual depth: Church, especially only relegated to Sunday services, becomes more about performance and programming rather than forming people into Christlikeness.
• Compartmentalized Christianity: Many Christians don’t know how to apply what they learned and integrate their faith into everyday life. Thus, they tend to separate their beliefs from their life at work, school, relationships, politics, etc.

The evangelical church today is good at making converts, or at the very least transferring from one church to another as a form of faith displacement. But it’s not increasing the body of Christ at all. We are good at attracting crowds but less effective at making disciples — people who truly follow Jesus Christ with their whole lives.

And what is the outcome when discipleship is weak:

• When believers are spiritually anemic, they are easily swayed by culture and crisis.
• Churches divide more easily over non-essential issues like policies, personalities, or preferences—thus, people will leave because of disappointment with staff and not over biblical reasons.
• The good news of the gospel gets watered down and replaced by social agendas. Outreach is relegated to activity like feeding the poor rather than sharing the gospel.
• The church’s witness in the world becomes irrelevant and hypocritical reinforcing stereotypes rather than reflecting Christ.
• Exhausted pastors and staff struggling in appeaing the masses to keep them instead of growng them.

Despite the growing trend in our culture, few churches are waking up to this and returning to basic biblical Christianity by:

• Teachng sound doctrine with truth in love.
• True fellowship by small-group discipleship and one-on-one mentoring. Growing closer to each other through transforming openness, confession of sin, and a desire to live a holy life.
• Encouraging biblical disciplines like prayer, fasting, study, service, and evangelism.
• Raising up mature believers in the faith and encouraging them to live it out in their spheres of influence.
• Prioritizing integrity, holiness, and character over popularity or platform.

Churches that get back to these biblical ideals are now growing while those who only appease the culture to fill the seats will end up empying them. We see this growing trend throughout America because true Christians are tired of the world infecting the body of Christ. Though this may seem easy, it’s not. According to Chuck Lawless of Outreach Magazine, discipleship is hard work, among five other reasons churches struggle to disciple. But the reward is worth the risk.

In summary, the health of the Christian church will not be measured by how many people fill the pews on Sunday, but how the people reflect the heart of Jesus in a broken world, which comes through deep, intentional discipleship. This creates healthy people, marriages, and families.

Just as the health of an orchard is measured not in the amount of trees contained in it but the wellness and amount of fruit each tree produces — so is the health of the roots of the church.